Blogs

A Good Lead
by Shirley Ann Kinsey

“Christian! Yo recuerdo que tu eres un buen lider!” On my first trip to Dorcas House in November, Christian, age 10, led 11 adults and 28 children on a two-mile trek to the nearest park. Assigned to the head of the line with him, I had been impressed by his leadership abilities.
It was now December, a Monday morning. We – four Seattle-area teachers and two San Diegans – entered through the Dorcas House rusty green gate pulling suitcases full of supplies. Christian flashed his winning smile at me as I greeted him with a side hug and the compliment.

By St. Paul's Cathedral parishioner Monique Caron:  In August a small group visited Dorcas House in Tijuana. After serving  lunch, we all went out to the covered patio where I began teaching the kids folk dances  which included Children's Polka, The Danish dance of Greeting, The Shoemaker's Dance, La Raspa and La Jesusita. Other members of our group paired up with the children to help them learn the steps. After learning the dances and not knowing the names, they began requesting them by the track number on the CD player or by showing me a few steps.

Check out this great article on Dorcas House on Episcopal Life online and in their monthly publication.

This was our second annual trip to the Parque Morelos water park with the Dorcas House kids, and I think it's my favorite visit of the year.  It was a hot but not scorching summer day and the children were so excited to be out of their normal weekend routine and going to have some fun in the water alongside more well-off Mexican families.  Our visit was the excuse to make this opportunity possible for the kids, and there's no better feeling then seeing how my actions directly affect the smile of a child

Our group of 23 visitors on Saturday, June 20 included congregants from St. Andrew's Lake Elsinore, Christ Church Coronado, St. Bart's Poway, and St.

Smiles, the Universal Language

When I was a child, a longtime ago (in a galaxy far away) there was a song sung in camps that nearly every one knew. The first line of the chorus goes, “There are smiles that make us happy. There are smiles that make us blue…” If you watch any of the colorful Mummer’s parade from Philadelphia on New Year’s Day, you may hear one of the banjo bands play and sing the song.

On April 25 a group of 26 of us from St. David's (Clairemont), St. Andrew's  (Lake Elsinore), and St. Paul's Cathedral  took 30 Dorcas House kids to El Trompo, Tijuana's children's museum.  They had a blast, and so did we.

I hadn't had a chance to play with big bubble-makers in a long while, so I lost track of time for a while myself creating huge bubble sheets and blowing on them to watch them ripple like a wave, and in trying to enclose a kid in a bubble.  We almost did it...

Open Wide

Everyone likes to think their family doctor or dentist is the best around. My dentist is Dr. Russell Okihara. I’ve been going to him for my dental needs since I first moved to San Diego in 2001. He attends St. Paul’s Cathedral and is a member of the cathedral Chapter (vestry.)

Twenty-four of us visited Dorcas House on March 7 -- our biggest group to date. It's exciting to see UCSD students coming back again, especially because they bring the best arts and crafts!

There's nothing like walking through the door when we first arrive: the kids call out the names of returning visitors with delight, and they immediately want to be picked up or hugged.  We played together with a big bouncy ball, we decorated crosses with glitter glue (and didn't make TOO much of a mess), and caught up with Sylvia, the house director.

Yesterday a group of 19 visited Dorcas House, including 7 from UCSD's joint Episcopal/Methodist campus ministry.  The weather report threatened a full day of rain, which more or less proved true -- although we didn't really ever have to stay in the rain more than a minute or two.  The best part of dreary weather was the less than 5-minute wait re-crossing the border!